Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! Oh, that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last He will stand upon the earth; And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
-Job 19:23–27
Is that not an incredible passage, Job 19:23–27? At a low point for Job. If you read Job 19 leading up to Job 19:23–27, you see that he is at the end of himself. Obviously, all that has happened to him, these miserable comforters around him and everyone has turned against him. He is utterly alone. And yet at this point in Job, he proclaims one of the most profound, amazing declarations of faith. That he knows this is not the end. He knows that he has a redeemer.
Job 19:23–27 teaches us that we have a Redeemer who lives.
He uses the word that we see in the Book of Ruth to describe love that pays a price for someone else, a word that we see in Exodus used to describe as the one who delivers, a word used throughout the Bible to describe the one who makes all things new. I know I have a Redeemer who lives. And at the last, meaning this is not the end. Whenever we walk through suffering, trials, difficulties in this world, remember, this is not the end.
This is not the last. At the last, the Redeemer will stand upon the earth. And Job says, “After my skin has been thus destroyed, after these sufferings, and after the pain is over, in my flesh, in my flesh,” he says, “I shall see God. I’ll behold him for myself. My eyes will see him. And my eyes will see my Redeemer. My heart faints within me.” He longs for this day.
Job 19:23–27 reminds us of our eternal hope.
And any one of us who has walked or is walking through trials and difficulties and sufferings knows this longing. I just want to encourage you, especially if you’re there right now, this is not the end. What you’re walking through right now is not the last. And this fallen world filled with sin and evil and suffering and pain and heartache and tears is not the end. One day you and I, all who have trusted in Jesus as our Redeemer, we will see his face.
Those are some of those beautiful words in all the Bible. Revelation 22, they will see his face. This is our hope. This is our hope that this is not the last, that this world is not the end. We hold onto this hope and we proclaim this hope. God, we praise you as our Redeemer today. We praise you as our defender, as our deliverer, as the one who loves us so much, that you sent your son to pay the price for our sins, so that we might be new creations, so that we might have hope that endures through whatever happens in this world.
This verse is an encouragement for the suffering.
God, I pray for those who are walking through trials and difficulties, challenges right now, valleys and low points. God, I pray that they would know in this moment, just like Job knew and Job 19, that they have a Redeemer, a defender, a deliverer who lives. And at the last, they, we shall see you, behold you with our own eyes, that you will wipe every tear from our eyes.
And you will take away the old and you will bring in the new. You will usher in a new heaven and a new earth where there is no more sin and no more evil and no more suffering and no more pain. Jesus, we praise you as our Redeemer. We pray, help us to proclaim you to others as Redeemer today. We’re not the only ones walking through hard times. There are so are people around us who need this hope.
Prayer for the Kababish People
God, we pray that you’d help us to proclaim this hope today to someone else who’s struggling. God, we pray, as we often do on this podcast, for people who don’t know about Jesus the Redeemer. Never even heard God. For the Kababish people in Sudan, this remote and nomadic people are so hard to reach because of the harsh conditions in Sudan.
Half a million of them who don’t know that there’s a Redeemer who lives, who will one day make all things new. God, we pray that you would send laborers to the Kababish people of Sudan. God, we pray for their salvation, for their redemption. Oh God, in this sinful fallen world, help us to hold on, hold fast to hope in you as our Redeemer no matter what comes our way, and help us to proclaim you as Redeemer right around us and to the ends of the earth.
We pray these things in the name of Jesus our Redeemer, who died on a cross, rose from the dead, and who lives today. In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
